HP 8710w Workstation Review

That I'm not sure about, I suggest emailing HP about that one.

 

Hey Chaz, great review. This has really helped me move toward buying this machine. One question, do you know if this has a slot for the Intel turbo memory card? On the Dell vostro you can put it in the wlan slot which I see this unit has.

Any info is apprecited. Tahks.

 

I think HP said "No" to Turbo Memory, but it could be installable.

 

It's not available or installable in the 8710 as far as I know. However it's not something to be bummed about in my opinion, it does not provide much of a performance increase. If you want better performance, consider getting a 7200RPM hard drive.

 

This review states that 8710w has Expresscard slot and even shows this slot in photo.

Actually 8710w has only one PCMCIA slot, no any ExpressCard slot.

Why this review shows totally wrong information ?

 

I'd like to know this as well.

 

There are always going to be more sales. The only reason that their sales are limited time is so they can say "You had better buy now before the high prices are GONE" . . . and then a week later they have another sale.
Going through HP is sometimes more expensive - try PCConnection.com and other stores. Note that through HP you'll be paying tax and shipping.

 

Thanks for the review Chaz. Just a small question. If you install GeForce drivers to convert the Quadro 1600 to an 8700M GT, would you be able to restore it at a later stage? Or better still is one able to toggle between the two?

 

You can't toggle, but you can revert back to Quadro drivers.

 

Does it work the other way round?
that is, install Quadro drivers on a 8700m GT when working on business apps....?

 

Wow, know that's "thinking outside the box"!

Good question, worth a rep IMO!

 

As noted you can't toggle between them - you need to fully uninstall/reinstall the drivers every time you want to change them around. But yes the drivers are only software so you can switch them around.

Never tried that but if you have a GeForce then I suppose there's no harm in trying.

 

where do I get the drivers?
and how do I get the 8700m gt to not recognize itself but instead install a Quadro driver?

 

Great review!

I would like to purchase 8710w for 3ds max and for web developing purposes also, in this case the WUXGA screen can be a problem (with 133 dpi everything might be tiny http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=124093)
As I see it: before designing a new UI I have to create an empty doc in photoshop (1000x1000px usually) and after my 15,4” 1280x800 with 98 dpi it will be too small part of screen I guess – and as a result I will provide a bigger buttons and font stiles then… Is it a problem for anyone else? My eyes are ok and I still don’t want WSXGA+ (cause we have WUXGA option!)
Should I forget about web design with WUXGA screen?

I’ve never used Quadro FX cars before so are they really hot for 3ds max and Maya (in design time only – but I hope I can use GPU power in final render also in the future with CUDA), so the question is – how hot it is in design time vs game cards (8700 eg)?

Also, I haven’t found any information about the games with 1600m –
Here http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html is no information for 3DMark01 3DMark03 – maybe 1600m doesn’t work with old games – or notebookcheck didn’t check it on this tests?

Also I know that game performance will be a bit lower - the question is how lower it can be?
If 1600M with original drivers is 10% slower then 8700 - then it’s ok – otherwise I would like to have a swapping tool for drivers (as I see not only me)

Thank you!

 

DPI should not be used on screens - it is used for printers. Use PPI, or Pixels Per Inch, instead:
http://chucker.mystfans.com/2005/11...or-any-given-screen-size-and-resolution.entry

DPI & PPI explained:
http://www.tildefrugal.net/photo/dpi.php

Rendering on the video card will probably produce a similar amount of heat compared to gaming.

You can softmod the 1600M to an 8700M-GT by installing the regular GeForce drivers.

 

Thank you for ppi articles, but still have no clue about WUXGA for web purposes though ); - I wish I have an option to look at them both side by side (8710w with WSXGA+ vs WUXGA) with same site on screen.

no doubt WUXGA is awesome - but how uncomfortable it can be for web designer?
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=124093 watching this pics now…

any news about CUDA drivers by hp? Here http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=39942 said:
NVIDIA does not provide drivers for laptops publicly because we have to work with each individual laptop manufacturer to support custom features (such as display power management). Therefore you need to contact your laptop manufacturer to request that they provide a CUDA-capable display driver.
that should be amazing to use GPU for final rendering purposes in 3ds max, how it will improve the render time then? - no numbers and tests for that was found (

 

It seems to me that you've got options for web design.

1. Adjust the onboard LCD resolution to be what you want! It scales!
2. Use an external monitor and adjust the resolution to be what you want!

That's what I do when the resolution is too tiny on my 8710W.

 

Yes, second option is the best, no doubt - if I downscale WUXGA to WSXGA - will it be fuzzy then? I appreciate if anyone has a screenshot of that. In games it can be ok, but in web sites 1px borders can look different in diff part of screen, right?

 

A screenshot won't show blurriness. Yes an LCD will be fuzzy outside of its native resolution no matter what. I would never buy a notebook and plan to run it in anything but the screen's native resolution.

 

I would like to have suggestions about a notebook for video editing in high resolution using Studio 11 ultimate.
HP 7810W is suitable for this application? Before this nice review my choice was between the following notebook:
A) Dell Precision M6300
Intell Core 2 T7700 2.4Ghz, 800, 4Mb
2.0GB, 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (1 x 2048MB)
160GB (7,200rpm) SATA Hard Drive
256MB NVIDIA Picture FX 1600M Graphics Card
17,0 " UltraSharp Widescreen WUXGA (1920x1200)
Internal 8X DVD+/-RW
HP Professional, SP2

B)Dell Inspiron 1720 (or analogous models as HP 9585)
Intell Core 2 T7700 or (T7500) 2.40 (2,2)GHz, 800,4Mb
2.0GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM (1x2048)
320GB, 5400RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (2X160GB)
256MB DDR2, NVIDIA® GeForce Go 8600M GT
17,0 " UltraSharp Widescreen WUXGA (1920x1200)
Internal 8X DVD+/-RW
Vista Home Premium or Business (32Bit)

Questions
1) Is better two internal HD 5400rpm (solution B) or one HD 7200rpm eventually with a second external HD 7200rpm (solution A)?
2)XP Professional o Vista?
3) 2 GB RAM are enough or are necessary 4 GB?

Thanks in advances for your suggestions
Live33

 

How about Linux, will it install / work OK (drivers etc.)?

How about the Line-out / headphone sound quality? ATM I have a SB Audigy and Koss Porta Pro headphones, when I turn the vol to the max I can just hear a faint buzzing sound if I cover the phones with my hands (edit: the Audigy sounds IMO pretty OK in other aspects aswell), how good does 8710w sound (e: Frequency response flat? Bass attenuation? Crappy upper frequencies?) Tried to google for info on soundchip but only info I found is " High Definition Audio support w/24-bit DAC".

How difficult is it to install RAM to 8710w? I'm planning on getting by with this (if I buy this) as long as possible so I thought I'd slap the full 4GB on it so it'll (hopefully) atleast run office apps smoothly 5 years from now.. do you just open the RAM compartment and stick them in? No nasty surprises?

This kind of unit costs currently approx. 2970usd / 2100eur in Germany, what do you think?

 

I installed CentOS 5 on my 8710w (wuxga) and out-of-the-box it supports:
graphics at 1920x1200
wired ethernet
DVDs and CDs
Audio
Fingermouse
it does not support:
wireless ethernet (haven't tried to find and install driver)
I have not tested:
Blu-Ray discs
mousepad
external monitor
standby / hibernate, or any low-power mode


I've tried booting the Ubuntu 7.04 live CD a few times and so far I have not found a graphics configuration that it supports.

As for audio, I don't like the fact that the High Definition audio support gives you only the choice of HDMI (many channels) and stereo headphone / line out (2 channels). No other choice, even with the docking station, which gives you extra video options like DVI, S-video, and composite.

But I haven't tested for "hiss" or anything like that. My office environment isn't quiet.

I haven't installed the RAM. ATM the 2 GB stick is quite expensive and things are running fine. My last laptop had 512 MB so this feels spacious to me.

 

edit: Thanks for the info Stobor.

I had another look at the audio thing and this finnish vendors site states that 8710w uses the 24-bit "HP Premier Sound" soundchip. Did a search on that and it seems to be quite common.. could someone with this chip in their laptop and a pair of decent headphones etc. maybe plz have a listen at it?

Allthough even if it doesn't sound too hot I don't know what else to buy.. are there any good alternatives for this laptop? I'm looking for a, umm.. quiet & quality multimedia (movies, music) desktop replacement that'll last me a long time (->4GB memory option). And then I'd like to have the Linux option incase M$ somehow goes (even more) completely bat**** insane in the future (->better to have Nvidia afaik?).

Sorry if I sound pesky, this is my 1st laptop and I'm not that rich so I really don't want to screw this up since I might not afford to buy another one anytime soon if this one doesn't satisfy me..

Maybe I could try to have a listen at this at some retailer. It's just that the nearest one that has this might be a 100 miles away. /=P

edit: There are of course some USB soundcards that afaik sound OK but then I'd have to carry that around too.

Also doesn't ne1 know about the RAM thing? Yo Chaz, where you at, you must know, halpmephleez!?

But seriouly, are there any good alternatives for this? If there isn't then ofcourse I might just aswell buy this despite it's possible small shortcomings.

 

I hadn't noticed o) but it says the following on this site (8710w:s specs&warranty info on HP:s finnish site):

"Yhteensopivat käyttöjärjestelmät (translates to "Compatible operating systems"):
Genuine Windows Vista® Enterprise, Genuine Windows 2000, SuSE Linux Enterpise Desktop 10"

Sounds good.

e: The finnish pages have been down for weeks (strange.. /:| ) but here are the UK specs.

 

The audio chip is a (Analog Devices) Soundmax 198x. I do not know the specific one but this chip is a decent step up from the likes of Dell's integrated audio. I have no headphone jack hiss whatsoever.

The nvidia Quadro FX 1600M is only supported with the most recent Nvidia drivers for linux, available on nvidia's website. Ubuntu might not be using recent enough drivers to be compatible.

The PCMCIA Audigy would be your best bet.

The primary memory slot is on the bottom of the laptop under an access panel. The secondary memory slot is under the keyboard. Both are user accessible and user upgradeable.

The only similar machine out there right now is the Precision M6300. It might be a viable alternative if you work in a Dell house.

 

Here's how to fix this problem on the old 8200 series,
maybe it's possible to do the same with the 8710.

 

I have 8710w (RM265UT):

T7500
4GB RAM
FX 1600m
Blu-Ray
120GB HD

I've been having problems playing Blu-ray movies on my computer. HP sent a technician to replace my system board but the problem still comes up and now they're asking me to send the computer in to their depot. It's really frustrating. Their tech support (I AGREE) is completely clueless with the situation and kept asking the stupidest question as if I don't know how to turn on my computer. Happens with almost all the tech support rep. I talked to. I've reinstalled Vista as many as 20 times in just 2 weeks trying to find out and debug the issue. It seems its a hardware problem (video card) but HP is such a hassle when it comes to part replacement. DELL on the other hand could send out a replacement parts just by e-mailing or talking for a FEW minutes to their workstation tech support. I don't know how many hours I sepnt on the phone with HP. They kept escalating the issue a few times (I don't even know how many levels they have). All they keep saying is "I apologize. Let me research on this issue and we'll give you a call back in a few days." To those who want to call HP always say you want to talk to a supervisor/manager. That'll wake up the tech support rep. you're talking to and they're more willing to do more than troubleshooting (reinstall this... reinstall that... reformat computer... download this...).

To those who got Blu-Ray to work which nVidia drivers are you using? Is it the one from HP? I'm also using Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra and Intervideo WinDVD 8 BD/HD version. The movies are VERY choppy and jittery. Tried 32-bit and 64-bit Vista also.

 

In order to play movies in HDCP content, I think that EVERY driver that has any possible relation to the video path must be WHQL certified. So I think you can only use the HP sourced drivers...

 

Hi nfinitefx -

I am considering purchase of the same model as yours. Beside the DVD playback problem, are you happy with the machine?

My concern is the display brightness. Is it as good as the reviewer says? I currently have an NW9440 and the brightness is very poor. Are you as impressed with the display as the reviewer?

Thanks!

 

I used a few HP drivers for the video card. They do play the HDCP content but not very well. It's very jittery and slow and causes the computer to eventually crash.

I never tried NW9440 before but I think the display is pretty good for a laptop. Well the brightness is not as good as my 24" Apple Cinema Display but it does show colors quite accurately. I'll see if I can take any pictures of the display brightness. I don't want to say I'm happy with the machine but I can't say I'm unhappy. HP support is REALLY annoying and their inability to fix a major issue in my system doesn't show that they care about each user's computer problems. The system does playback regular DVD well but just not Blu-ray and HD DVD.

I just found out that there's a new BIOS for the video card that is available from IBM website. The BIOS is newer than the one from HP that came with the unit so I might give it a try.

 

Upgrading the BIOS didn't work since HP FX 1600m uses different EEPROM than IBM. Well I kinda gave up trying to fix this laptop. So I called tech support and asked for customer relations. Now all I have to do is wait for a reply from them. Kind of frustrating spending $3500 on a laptop and not having it to work.

 

Thanks a lot for your answers win32asmguy!

I finally just ordered a 8710w and a 2GB Kingston KVR667D2S5/2G DDR2 SODIMM which, according to this finnish vendors site, is supposed to work with all laptops with a Intel GM965 / PM965 / 945GM / 945PM chipset and a DDR2 slot (the actual Kingston RAM module belonging to 8710w is KTH-ZD8000B but KVR667D2S5 was ~30% cheaper so I thought I'd give it a try).

On this finnish vendors site it says it's "Audio Codec AD1981HD". Googled AD1981HD -> Analog Devices AD1981HD - HD Audio SoundMAX® Codec

 

Here are a few quick notes in response to articles and questions I've seen:

The built-in card reader supports my 4GB SDHC card, which someone was asking about. Never had a problem there.

The travel adapter/charger has an interesting failure mode. Evidently it doesn't have the guts to drive even the simplest HP docking station. Connect the power supply to it and it goes to sleep- some kind of overload protection?

So.. if you are using a docking station, don't try to get by with the 65 Watt adapter. You need the 90-watt unit.

I've already complained about the audio situation-- either HDMI or stereo through the headphone jack. I've purchased, (but not tried!) a Kensington docking station (cheap from ThingFling.com) that, if all goes well, will give me three headphone jacks and 5.1 sound. I'm nowhere near having HDMI equipment, but having 5.1 sound available to go with the VGA output will be nice.

Here's a weird one for you. I don't know much about the "copy protection" of output formats for Blu-Ray, but my friend swears up and down that you should NOT be able to play Blu-Ray across the VGA output.

I'm telling you that, using various output configurations, I've been able to play Blu-Ray out the HDMI port, the VGA port (on the docking station) and the DVI port (also on the docking station). This may be some landmark thing in overriding copy protection but I just want to watch the pictures.

I hooked the VGA output to my friend's projection home theater stuff and ran it in 1920x1200 resolution and it rocked. Sure, the picture wasn't razor-sharp after a 16-foot VGA cable, but it was pretty good.


Ran into a nasty little problem while I was on-site at a client's place for a week: the SMART hard drive reported imminent failure and absolutely refused to boot the system. There's a little thingie that says "hit F1 to ignore" ... which takes you into (a very limited) BIOS setup, and the only way I've found to get out of that causes a reboot and a message that the SMART drive reported imminent failure...

The good news is that I brought the system home, took the hard drive out and connected it to a SATA USB sled (same sled for 2.5 inch SATA and 3.5 inch SATA!!) and duplicated it to a spare matching drive that I'd bought for such an emergency. The sled didn't complain, and as far as I know I didn't lose anything at all.

I find that in some situations, a bit of pressure on the unit can "twist" it into believing that the soft keys (presentation, wireless on/off) have been touched.

The unit is no good for working in the passenger seat of a car or on an airplane. It's just too big, and every bump in the car wobbles the LCD display.

Blu-ray through this thing is just awesome.

There are times when I really wish this thing had a keyboard light like my IBM ThinkPad has.

I picked up the HP roller bag for this, from HP but made by Targus. The shoulder strap shredded itself on my first business trip (to Paris, where we had a lot of high-energy walking and running to catch trains and subways and so-on). The wheel axles tend to come undone from time to time. Try not to lose any parts and you'll be able to put it back together, no problem.

When I'm traveling, I look wistfully at the hotel TV with it's composite and S-video input jacks and wish that I had a video jack that would work with it, instead of the six USB ports. It's nice having USB ports on both sides, but I still feel that six on the main unit is overkill.

When I travel, I like to put a docking station at the client site and leave it there. But if I want to watch a DVD or Blu-Ray title at the hotel room, I can either watch it on the (admittedly nice) 17" laptop display, or I can drag a full docking station around with me. Neither option is particularly appealing.

I've got one of those "laptop display stand" things where you anchor a docking station to it and then put your laptop in it and open the screen and use a regular keyboard.

It's nice, except that unless the notebook is mounted exactly correctly the notebook has a tendency to electrically separate itself from the docking station, and all the network connections and so forth go away.

Is that enough raving for the moment? There's so much to like about this unit that I feel guilty about pointing out mostly the quirks.

Stobor

 

Hi

Has anyone who owns the 8710w used the extended battery (8 cell or 12 cell)? If so, what type of battery life do you get and under what load conditions?

Thanks!
Rayt

 

I have the 8710p, and my review mentioned battery life numbers for the notebook with the 8-cell extended battery. The 8710w should have a very similar battery life as they are basically identical.

 

I've got the 12 cell super-ultra battery and my nutshell review is "disappointing".

Granted, I don't have the official HP installation of Windows XP, which definitely has some battery-savig features like slowing the CPU.

But HP's website quotes runtimes of "up to 10 hours" with this battery. What they don't point out is that this is with a different model- there's NOTHING you can do to get 10 hours out of the 8710w. Not even with the LCD backlight turned off, etc, etc.

Because, while you get to the 10-hour figure by clicking on the battery link from the 8710w page, the 10-hour figure means "in general", not "for the 8710w".

With minimum CPU, backlight off, no use of CD/DVD/Blu-Ray drive I got a quote of about 6 hours with the 12-cell battery attached.

As it turned out, the 8710w is so large that it doesn't sit well on an a standard airline tray table, and so I worked on paper much of the flight.

For what it's worth, the 12-cell batter gives you slightly more than double the runtime of the standalone model. But the HP claim that it holds 1.5 * the standalone battery (4 hours standalone, 4 + 6 = 10 hours together) is bunk. Look at the capacity numbers, which I don't care to do right now because I'm running the thing at the moment.

 

Greg and Stobor - thanks for putting in your 2 cents. Yeah, I'm trying to decide between the 8710p and 8710w, and battery life as well as screen quality are my 2 biggest criteria. I kinda suspected the 8710w wouldn't have spectacular battery life even with the secondary batteries hooked up based on what I read in Chaz's 8710w review. That's too bad because I prefer the WUXGA screen over the 8710p WSXGA+. I think for me, in the end, the 8710p will win because of the huge difference in battery life. It would be nice if HP could allow you to configure an 8710p with WUXGA -- in my opinion, a 17 inch laptop should have this as an option automatically.

 

There is a detailed spec sheet in which HP quotes all the battery lives given all the notebooks and each battery.

 

I would just like to chime in and say that 15.4" laptops don't even sit on airline trays very well (I just spent 20 hours on various flights and none of the airlines had a tray the right size/shape), so expecting a 17" to do so is high hopes

As an aside, maybe HP meant 10 hours with 12 cell + another 9 cell?

 

Hi and thanks for the review!

Sadly, I've had some dramas with my 8710p purchase. First time, the screen had significant light leakage from the base. I took it back to the shop and got a replacement. Then the screen had two dark corners on either side at the bottom - again, I took it back for a replacement.

Yet I'm still not happy with the screen. There seems to be a border of lightness around the edge of the screen, which is not present in my 4-year-old Asus M4Ne which has a perfect screen, best I've ever had.

If I may ask some advice - where do I draw the line with screen quality? I'd assume this level of notebook would have a faultless lcd panel, but there seems to be issues with it. I believe mine is a Samsung screen, but how do I find out for sure? Any advice appreciated.

 

Hi, think i am having the same light border, and think is the installation defect, as pointed out by Greg, refer
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=175311&page=7
over here there is no return policy! so think all hp rejects worldwide end up in such countries hur? .. HTH

 

Hi Burgerlim, thanks for the response. It's a relief to know others have had a similar issue - for a while I thought I was being too fussy with mine. A sales rep where I bought it said, "oh that's just LCD screens for you" when I pointed out the light leak issue. Now I know better, that's just not acceptable.

However I persisted, and even took my old ASUS M4N in to the shop to point out the difference in quality. One should expect a screen to at least match something that's 4 years old!

My 8710p also seemed to have a problem with light across the entire screen - that is, blacks never actually got completely black. Again, my 4yr old ASUS, even with screen brightness turned up full, showed bright colours yet very black blacks. The 8710's blacks were dark grey, as if there a kind of "ambient" light leakage.

I spoke to the shop manager, and he was incredibly helpful. We compared it to their display machine, which was visibly much better, blacks being much darker than the one I bought.

So I think many 8710p's are definitely defective! I had two - the one I returned was replaced with another defective one. So they must be common, yet most people probably don't notice or care.

It may be an assembly issue, or the unit is designed in such a way that it's hard to seat the LCD properly. I don't know.

The other bad feature than all 8710's seem to exhibit (that I've seen so far), is the slight darkness in the bottom left and right corners. Even their better unit had this problem.

Apart from the screen issues, this is a great machine, though it does get very hot under the palm rest when gaming. I will definitely be getting a cooling pad for it.

Sorry to hear about the no return policy, but there are definitely defective units out there - try speaking directly to HP, and keep persisting. Speak to someone in charge, as they must be aware of the problem, and cannot stop you from exchanging a defective unit (I assume!)

 

Is there also a version of this laptop with a 1440x900 screen?
I find the 1050 resolution to be too tiny for my eyes.

 

There is one, yes, at least in Europe.

 

Does anybody have an opportunity to compare 1680*1050 and 1920*1200 screens on this notebook?

 

The reviewer of the 8710 said the screen was "evenly lit", however I'm having major dramas with units being sold here in Perth Aus. I've found that the screen "backlighting" (if that's the right word) is very uneven on all units I've seen, not just the one I bought.

Please check these mock-ups of what I'm experiencing - dark bottom corners and uneven brightness:





What kind of lighting evenness is being experienced by other 8710 owners? Is this fixable? I'd like to know from the reviewer too... because you can't notice these things easily looking at Vista or XP's default theme, which has various colours over it. You need to look at a flat colour background to see it.

Any advice appreciated.

 

My Asus G1s also has dark corners at the bottom of the screen. I honestly never noticed them until I saw this thread. They're roughly 2 or 3 sq. mm.

 

I've seen that on EVERY HP business laptop that I have ever owned or reviewed. I never really looked on my D430, but I'll check soon.

Its because of the size and location of the backlight...and I'd have to say that HP probably could not change that to fix it.

 

Thanks for the feedback, good to know it's not a fault in my machine, yet pity it can't be fixed.. Never seen it in other models, my old ASUS M4N is perfect... maybe it's something about 17" screens that make them harder to cover evenly?

 

On another note, I'm trying to install XP on this machine from scratch, to replace Vista. I'm using a copy of my XP-Pro install disc with SP2 slipstreamed into it (see http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp2_cd.htm).

After it runs through reading drivers, it comes up saying it can't detect a hard disk. Which is weird.. haven't checked, but I assume there is one in there.

Any ideas how I can get past this point? Is there a device driver I need to slipstream or otherwise add to the XP install disc?